The Answer Intent Map
Layer 1 of the AEO system isn't about building anything. It's about listening. Traditional SEO starts with keyword research — search volume, difficulty scores, long-tail variations.
AEO starts with a completely different question: What are people asking AI assistants about your category?
Today you'll learn how to build your Answer Intent Map — the competitive intelligence tool that tells you exactly where you stand and where the opportunities are.
How to build your map
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Ask 50+ variations of the questions real customers would ask about your category. Here are the types of queries to test:
Best-in-category queries: "What's the best [product] for [use case]" — these are the highest-value queries because they show direct purchase intent.
Comparison queries: "[Your brand] vs [competitor] which should I buy" — these tell you how AI positions you head-to-head.
Validation queries: "Is [your brand] worth the price" — these reveal whether AI trusts you enough to endorse you.
Problem-solution queries: "Best [product] for [specific problem]" — these show whether AI connects your product to specific needs.
Technical queries: "[Ingredient A] vs [Ingredient B] which is better" — these test whether AI cites your educational content.
What to log for each query
For every question you ask, record:
The exact query — Word for word, as you typed it.
The AI's answer — Which brands were recommended, in what order.
The exact wording — How did the AI describe the recommended brand? This becomes your template for how to write your Answer Hub.
Sources cited — What URLs did the AI reference? These are the pages you need to either appear on or create equivalents of.
Your presence — Were you mentioned? If yes, in what position? If no, who was mentioned instead?
This gives you a spreadsheet with 50+ rows — your Answer Intent Map. It tells you exactly where you're winning, where you're losing, and what sources you need to influence.
Reading the results
That conversation above? That's what it looks like when your brand hasn't done AEO. The AI literally says "I don't have enough information about you."
When the supplement brand in our case study first ran this audit, they appeared in zero of 50 queries. Their competitors showed up in 23. That was the wake-up call.
Your map will reveal one of three scenarios for each query:
You're winning — You're the #1 recommendation. Protect this position.
You're mentioned — You appear but not in the top spot. There's an opportunity to move up.
You're invisible — AI doesn't know you exist for this query. This is where the biggest gains are.